27 Mar 2017

As a mitigating measure to the Malaria outbreak, North West leadership has agreed to embark on a massive indoor residual re-spraying exercise in the district.
This comes after an announcement by health officials that the district was hard hit by the epidemic as currently it recorded 794 cases of Malaria and five deaths with the highly affected region being Okavango. Last week, it was reported that the district recorded a total of 670 cases.
The district commissioner, Mr Keolopile Leipego told a full council meeting that the situation called for an urgent attention hence they met as leadership and came up with an action plan.
He said a decision was made to embark on re-spraying households and that long lasting insecticidal nets would be distributed to households that were missed during the last mass distribution campaign.
He said they had also realised that some areas were left behind because of resistance by owners while some were vacant during the exercise stressing that the mosquito nets would only be distributed in some designated areas.
For the transmission period of 2016/17, the district achieved a collective average of 69 per cent coverage as compared to the 85 per cent target expected.
Mr Leipego also informed councillors that during the meeting, a suggestion was also made for the inclusion of mosquito repellant as part of the packages to beneficiaries assisted by the council.
The lower House also heard that many opportunities still existed at community level to effectively control the spread of Malaria such as cutting of long grass and cleaning of the surroundings to minimise breeding spaces for the insect.
The district commissioner appealed to political leaders to mobilise the community and encourage them to join hands with the government to prevent Malaria. He appealed to all stakeholders to advocate for community members to cooperate with teams carrying out the spraying exercise.
Malaria is purely a preventable diseases as it is seasonal.
However, recently, the head of District Health Management Team (DHMT) Dr Malebogo Pusoentsi told councillors that the situation was worrisome and urged the community to open their homes for spraying.
She noted that they should also come forward when they experience signs and symptoms of Malaria to seek help from the health facilities. She discouraged self-treatment adding that it was better to do the Rapid Diagnoses Test.
For their part, councillors welcomed the decision to re-spray noting that the outbreak needed urgent attention considering the number of cases recorded. Cllr Marobela Ledimo of Gani/Nxaunxau ward supported the inclusion of mosquito repellants in the packages of those assisted by the council. ENDS